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The holiday season can mean only one thing to wrestlers - weight allowances. Yes, every wrestler can breath a sigh of relief as weight allowances will be in affect in Ohio and West Virginia when they hit the mat next.
“They feel that kids are still growing and this two-pound weight allowance helps wrestlers with their weight management program,” West Virginia Wrestling Rules Interpreter Bill Welker said.
Both Ohio and West Virginia will have the two-pounds beginning on Tuesday, according to Welker and Jack Regis, secretary of the local Ohio wrestling officials.
I can still recall sitting around the table during Thanksgiving as a high school wrestler being very cautious of what I ate because I had to make weight the following week. However, that wasn’t the case during Christmas dinner knowing my typical 215-pounds was now increased to 217-pounds.
This allows your weight management programs to be a little more flexible, but remember wrestlers still need to make their base weight at least once.
For example, if your Alpha weight says you can not make 125-pounds until January 2008 you must weigh-in at 125-pounds and not 127-pounds for that match. If it happens to be a two-day tournament, the wrestler would get another pound at weigh outs. So they would get the two-pound allowance plus the extra pound for a multi-day event making the needed weight to be 128-pounds.
NORTH CANTON HOLIDAY INVITATIONAL
GRUELING IT out as Christmas nears was the Wheeling Park wrestling program this week as they traveled to the North Canton Holiday Invitational - one of their arguably toughest tournaments of the season.
The high octane squad led by mat mentor Sean Doyle continued to turn its wheels as the Patriots (104.5) managed to stay on the leader board at the end of Saturday night in ninth place. Doyle’s grapplers fell short of the team gold as Ohio Division I Goliath’s Wadsworth (186.5) and Uniontown Lake-Blue (160.5) finished on top of the leader board.
“Overall this type of tournament lets our guys know where they are in the season,” Wheeling Park coach Season Doyle said. “To face that type of competition and having to wrestle six full minutes to win a match is a great experience which we don’t always get in matches.
“I cannot count the number of matches we lost in the last seconds of matches.”
Park finished the two-day tournament with three place winners - Dirk Bauer (103), Bryce Rush (135) and Alan Ernest (215).
Bauer, who earned top seed at his weight, was stunned in the semi finals as Alfredo Gray of Wadsworth took down the junior Patriot late in the third to move on to the finals.
Bauer and Gray exchanged takedowns in the opening two panels entering the third in a 2-2 deadlock. Bauer road Gray out the majority of the final period finally earning a pair near fall points, 4-2, as the two went out of bounds.
With time ticking away quickly, Gray recorded an escape and added a takedown off a snap down to take the lead,5-4, with five seconds remaining for the win.
Down, but not out, Bauer came back in a vengeance tech falling Zach Adelman of Hoover in the consolation semifinals,16-0. He went on to decision a highly ranked Ohio Division II wrestler in Dan Mirman of Medina Highlands. Bauer now sits with a 14-2 ledger for the season.
Rush, an unseeded wrestler, went the hard route to bringing home hardware as he dropped a 4-3 decision to Jon McKee of Medina Highlands early on. Dropping to the bottom of the consolation bracket, Rush came back to win three consecutive matches to end up in the bronze medal match. However, the junior Patriot would have to injury default out of the match to settle for fourth place.
“Bryce wrestled an outstanding tournament in probably the toughest weight class in the tournament,” Doyle said.
Rush, who has been overshadowed by his four-time OVAC champion brother Abby, is beginning to hit stride late in his high school career. Having to wait his turn behind some quality low weights - his brother Abby and Ronnie and Ronnel Green - the senior is developing rapidly as he gains varsity mat experience.
“They are two different kids - Bryce and Abby. It may have been hard watching Abby’s success, but don’t let that overshadow Bryce,” Doyle said as Abby never picked up a West Virginia title during his pre wrestling career. “Bryce is a tough wrestler
and has been a pleasure to work with this season. I firmly believe he has what it takes to be an OVAC or state champ this year.”
Ernest, the No. 2 seed, learned that Ohio wrestling was no joke as he was handed a 3-1 setback in the championship quarterfinals. The senior Patriot came back in his next two matches earning a pin and a seven point decision victory. However, in the consolation semifinals Ernest got caught by an engine of steam in Roman Lawson of Shaker Heights in 2:16. Earnest went on for win his fifth-sixth place match by default to end the tournament.
WEST MUSKINGUM INVITATIONAL
The low numbered Bridgeport mat program went to test its skills outside of the valley this weekend wrestling at the West Muskingum Invitational. Led by senior grappler Bryan Skoff, the Bulldogs were overpowered in the team standings finishing ninth out of 11 teams as East Knox took home top honors as a team.
Working tough on the mat, coach Ross Roskovich’s Bulldogs placed four grapplers in the contest - Jimmy Gessler (4-119), Skoff (1-160), Todd Devin (7-171) and Sean West (1-285).
“Everyone is working hard and getting better,” Roskovich said. “We’ll continue to find out where we are as the competition starts to get better.”
Skoff and West were the Bulldog’s gold medal winners as they fought through a pool of plentiful Ohio wrestling talent.
“Bryan was looking good on his feet taking most guys down three times and then sticking him,” Rosskovich said about Skoff’s opponents this past weekend.
West won his finals match by a 4-3 decision.
“Sean wrestlesd a monster from John Glenn and was able to pull it out,” Rosskovich said. “He is developing well and needs to continue to increase his work ethic to take it to the next level.”
Cook can be reached at bcook@timesleaderonline.com